willowfall
Senator
I am kind of fascinated with the fascination the we have (as a group) with the Roman version(s) of crucifixion.
Many cultures used crucifixion as a punishment both before and after Rome, yet we constantly seem to be enamored with Rome.
The Phoenicians and Carthaginians certainly practiced it as did the post Alexandrian Greeks.
I've been reading a history of the Nabateans (the Arabic people who created Petra) and the author mentions a Hasmonean (same line Herod the Great came out of) King of Judea by the name of Alexander Jarnaeus who crucified 800 of his opponents and had their wives and children (while he was drinking wine surrounded by his concubines) massacred in front of them as they were dying on the crosses.
The Arab conquerors of the Middle East practiced crucifixion at least into the 700s (although they tended to torture their victims to death on the cross, not to use it by itself as a form of execution).
There is a story of a Japanese Damiyo falling to capture his opponent after a battle and crucifying the man's wife and children instead.
And the Chinese Warlords may have been using it as a form of punishment possibly up to WWII.
Yet we (mostly) keep coming back to the Romans. I wonder if this is based on our shared Christian heritage. Even those of us in the west who are not Christians have grown up in a culture seeped in Christianity.
Thoughts?
Kisses
willowfall
Many cultures used crucifixion as a punishment both before and after Rome, yet we constantly seem to be enamored with Rome.
The Phoenicians and Carthaginians certainly practiced it as did the post Alexandrian Greeks.
I've been reading a history of the Nabateans (the Arabic people who created Petra) and the author mentions a Hasmonean (same line Herod the Great came out of) King of Judea by the name of Alexander Jarnaeus who crucified 800 of his opponents and had their wives and children (while he was drinking wine surrounded by his concubines) massacred in front of them as they were dying on the crosses.
The Arab conquerors of the Middle East practiced crucifixion at least into the 700s (although they tended to torture their victims to death on the cross, not to use it by itself as a form of execution).
There is a story of a Japanese Damiyo falling to capture his opponent after a battle and crucifying the man's wife and children instead.
And the Chinese Warlords may have been using it as a form of punishment possibly up to WWII.
Yet we (mostly) keep coming back to the Romans. I wonder if this is based on our shared Christian heritage. Even those of us in the west who are not Christians have grown up in a culture seeped in Christianity.
Thoughts?
Kisses
willowfall